The Freelance Writing Life

Getting Started in a Freelance Career: Fulfilling Your Dream of Self-Employment, by Angela Scott is an excellent article for writers who want to branch out into freelance writing as either their part-time or full-time jobs. I agree with everything Angela has written and would like to add to her advice.

I recently have started my own freelance writing and desktop publishing business, New England Expressions, LLC (www.neexpressions.com), and I know how trying it can be for a beginner to pull in a client base. Thankfully, my husband works full-time and I don't have the pressure some freelancers do of trying to find work to pay the bills. Still, that doesn't mean I don't have some amount of pressure to succeed.

My husband and I live in the tourist town of Arlington, VT and the price of living is higher than that of non-tourist sites. I have been writing for years but only a few months ago decided to turn my writing into a full-time business and help generate needed income.

While there are many great things about being self-employed such as setting my own hours, taking vacations when I want, taking time off at leisure and being my own boss, there are downsides as well. I work alone from nine in the morning to four at night and rarely have anyone to talk to. Most of my "conversing" is done through writing either through articles like this or through e-mails, snail-mail letters and Blogs. Without the interaction of other people writing can be solitary and not everyone can handle this kind loneliness, or feeling of seclusion from the world. I generally don't mind working alone and find I work better without the pressure of a boss peering over my shoulder.

At the start of a business work is slow, but when it picks up you may have to be prepared to work long hours, including late nights when your family is sleeping. Family vacations may have to be put on hold or canceled all together for you to make a deadline.

Taxes are another big thing. Instead of paying just personal income tax, you also have to pay self-employment tax as well as state tax. State tax and self-employment taxes are paid quarterly and many self-employed entrepreneurs forget to pay the self-employment tax every quart and wind up owing the IRS a few thousand dollars when they go to file their income tax. It is a great idea to set reminders on your Outlook, Google, or Yahoo calendars for when your taxes are due.
Just starting a business requires a lot of work and most of it you will find doesn't actually start with writing things for someone else. You spend most of your time writing a detailed business plan that will either serve as an operational plan for your reference, or it will serve as a financial proposal to possible investors.

Filling out a business plan can be frustrating when all you want to do is start your business, but it is best to have it filled out so you can refer to it and update it later. In the end, you will be glad you took the time out to research your market and fill out your business plan as clients may look for specific information that your research and business plan can answer.

Research for your kind of work can be hard to find. I needed to find information on the aspects of the writing business to see whether or not the field was growing. If it wasn't, there was no point in wasting my time on starting my business and wasting my time writing. I found the information I needed at the US Department of Labor web site at: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos089.htm. It turns out my field was expected to grow over the next few years and so I proceeded to continue with my business plan.

It is vitally important to read up on the market or industry you're getting into, to find out if the kind of writing you're doing is in high demand or not. The last thing you want to do is spend most of your time working on various projects only to find out they are not as widely needed as you expected and had hoped.

There are many books and websites out there to help you write your business plan and start your own home-base freelance writing business. A great book to start with is, How to Start a Home-based Writing Business, by Lucy V. Parker. This book has everything you'll need to help you writing your business plan and start your own business. There are many helpful forms to help keep you organizes as well a compact bibliography and resource list that points you to other helpful information both in print and on-line.

Like Angela had said in her article, gaining clients and keeping a client base can be very hard for the beginning freelancer. The key is promoting yourself and you can do so by creating flyers, business cards, brochures, a web site, Blogs, word of mouth and also by writing press releases and submitting them to newspapers. You can also advertise in on-line and print editions of directories, magazines, newspaper classified ads, as well as swapping links or banners with other people you know.

Now that you have a client base, how much are you going to charge for projects? Are you going to charge per project or by the hour? These are questions I had to find an answer to. I knew I didn't want to set prices without knowing what the standard charge was for various kinds of writing and relate projects.

I am a member of WritersMarket.com and I searched the "Expert Advice" section and came up with an article by Lynn Wasnak, "How Much Should I Charge?". In the article was everything I needed to know from general advice to actual prices per project as well as prices per hour. The estimates listed are standard for the freelance field.

Once you have done your research, filled out your business plan and had someone from your local Small Business Development Center look through it with you, you will then need to fill out the necessary forms such as the form for registering your business name, that is if you are doing business under another name. These forms are often found on your secretary of state's website. You will also need to check with your for state's department of taxes to see if you will need to fill out any forms. The last stop will be at the IRS web site where you will need to download forms such as: 1040 ES (estimated tax for individuals), 1040 C (profit or loss from business) and 1040 SE (self-employment tax).

No matter how much you desire to have a writing business of your own, you will need to do some searching and decide if you can handle the loneliness you may experience. Brush up on or organizational skills, as well as find ways to manage your time and your projects. Persistence and determination are the supplements you will need to help you succeed and survive as freelance writer.